How Trump Leaned Into Crypto Policy And Crypto Donations In 2024

A person known publicly as Malcolm DeGods, whose real name was verified for this story with the agreement to keep his identity anonymous, asked a simple but pointed question on May 10th to Donald Trump about crypto that instantly elevated the issue of crypto to the Presidential election, revealed how Trump would be favorable to the crypto industry, and just last Tuesday started accepting crypto donations with a vow to build a ‘crypto army’.

Right after the event at Mar-a-Lago, I had the opportunity to interview DeGods about his question and Trump’s answer, which one of his colleagues made a video of that quickly went viral on X. I found the interview with DeGods, who explained how he came to be at the event in the first place, why he was wearing pit viper sunglasses, and provided a glimpse into what crypto culture is all about.

DeGods explained how, “the collect Trump NFT trading cards sent us an invite [to Mar-a-Lago] to help build community and culture.” He shared that he and his team had VIP access, meaning he would be in a section during the event where he knew he would have a chance to ask Trump a question.

In the now famous exchange, Trump then called on DeGods by saying, “You in the goggles”. DeGods then asked, “…why a lot of the smartest people in crypto are moving their businesses out of the U.S. because of like the U.S.’s regulations.” Trump then responded, “Because of the hostility…Crypto is moving out of the U.S. because of hostility toward crypto”. DeGods stood his ground and asked, “So, what are you going to do to stop it?” Trump answered, “Well, we’ll stop it because I don’t want that…If we’re going to embrace it, we have to let them be here”.

When asked about his pit viper sunglasses, DeGods revealed it was from the crypto coin Mog (MOG), a meme coin where a cat is wearing pit vipers. “Mog is about a tokenized crypto community of winning and domination, and Trump embodies tenets of domination in all realms and winning,” said DeGods.

As he was clearly excited at the success of his question in the video, he also realized how important this was to those in the cryptocurrency business. DeGods explained his involvement in the business where he started an early NFT collection on Solana
Solana
before it became popular to do so. According to DeGods, the community that was built represents the most culturally relevant crypto community on crypto twitter. Describing his crypto community as having a ‘degenerate punk sort of vibe’, DeGods said, “We’re not building a typical business. This is about crypto culture and community building.”

I asked DeGods to help explain to my readers what it means to be a ‘degenerate’ in crypto. DeGods stated it is a philosophy that embodies, “…a willingness to make very large bets that to a normal person would seem ludicrous and then repeat these risky bets over and over again.”

When asked what the motivation was for him to ask the question, DeGods said, “…as a crypto-native, Gensler’s hawkish stance for crypto has been not encouraging to a lot of us. Biden appointed Gensler I believe as a proxy of his Administration, making Biden coming off as potentially anti-crypto.” DeGods further explained that for many in his community and in the broader crypto industry, “…crypto is their livelihood, their way of breaking out of the system and leading a prosperous life.”

“Whether it’s Gensler, or Biden not knowing anything about crypto, or the general lack of clarity, it becomes very personal so when I went to go ask Trump about crypto businesses in America, I felt that I was voicing the opinion of a lot of us,” said DeGods. DeGods believes his community feels encouraged and accepted by the simple fact of hearing Trump talking about crypto. “Trump saying the word rallies the entire industry to back him,” said DeGods.

I asked DeGods if the answer he heard meant he personally would vote for Trump. DeGods said, “I don’t consider myself a single issue voter, but it will sway a lot of votes toward Trump.” DeGods said most politicians underestimate the deep pockets in crypto that will donate to politicians.

DeGods then shared something a couple of weeks ago during this interview that turned out to be very prescient. “If Trump opens up a campaign donation wallet, it would immediately receive tens of millions of dollars of donations. That is going to create a lot of polarity between Democrats and Republicans, since Trump has been the first mover,” said DeGods. DeGods went on to say the industry should, “…expect a lot of slander against crypto as a result [of Trump accepting crypto donations].”

As to why he is bullish on the space, DeGods said, “If you go to a crypto conference in the U.S., you will find a vast majority of the attendees are PhD.s and computer scientists from the best institutions around the world.” DeGods believes the ability to get rich in crypto, “…attracts people who were once getting into finance, becoming lawyers, or going to big tech companies. Now they are starting crypto tokens and crypto projects because of the upside.”

The idea of crypto donations may affect the way money is treated and how campaigns view the potential pros and cons to start accepting crypto themselves. The recent announcement on Tuesday that Trump’s campaign started accepting crypto will certainly changes the dynamics in campaigns across the country. It definitely reflects how crypto policy has certainly been elevated to the main stage of American politics for this election cycle and how many are tracing this change back to Malcolm’s question.

It was about 16 years ago back in 2008 when ‘Joe the Plumber’ went viral from a question asked of Barack Obama about how his tax policy might hurt small business owners. Now in 2024, it appears we may have ‘Malcolm the NFT creator’ as the new representative of an average voter who similar wants to start his own small business in crypto who worries about how policy may impact his livelihood.